"What, of This Goldfish, Wold You Wish?

Comments (0)

Transcript of "What, of This Goldfish, Wold You Wish?

BackgroundThroughout their various exiles, Jews have found themselves to be the victims of persecution and anti-Semitism. They were taken as slaves by the Babylonians,Greeks, and Romans. During the Middle Ages, they were blamed for the Black Death epidemics that swept Europe. They were tortured by Catholics during the Inquisition. There were "pogroms" (anti-Jewish riots and violence against Jews) in Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Romania, the Ukraine, and even Ireland. They were called "Christ killers" and persecuted by what might be called CINOs [Christians In Name Only]. And have been persecuted by Muslims.

During World War II, the Jews faced genocide at the hands of the Nazis. In what has come to be called the "Holocaust," six million European Jews were systematically exterminated in what the Nazis called their "final solution of the Jewish question." Jews were rounded up, sent to concentration camps, put to death in gas chambers, shot, buried alive, starved, injected with drugs and chemicals, and subjected to brutal experiments.KGBDuring the Cold War, the KGB or "Soviet secret police" was responsible for preventing political dissent and disloyalty to the state, securing the USSR's borders, counter-intelligence, the investigation of "economic crimes" and political supervision over the armed forces. The KGB's secrete agents worked to promote Soviet ideology and propaganda, while exiling political dissidents to labor camps. ZionismPlotYonatan or Yoni, a young boy filmmaker from Tel Aviv, is working on a documentary about what three wishes people might ask of a talking goldfish, should one exist. He happens to visit a Russian emigré living in Jaffa who actually possesses such a goldfish...CharactersYonatan (Yoni), a bright, creative young boy with an earring, who sets out to film a documentary on what three wishes people around Tel Aviv would ask of a magic goldfish. He planned to get everyone, "to the unemployed, to the ultrareligious, to the Arabs and Ethiopians and American expats" He planned to shoot in all the suburbs of Tel Aviv.Etgar KeretBorn in Ramata Gan, Israel in 1967 to parents who survived the Holocaust. He lives in Tel Aviv with his wife and son. He is a writer, best known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television."What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?SettingThe story takes place in Jaffa, a southern suburb of Tel Aviv, on the Mediterranean coast of Israel, home to "addicts and Arabs and pensioners" and of Sergei Goralick, a Russian emigré.Terms to knowZionistKGBdiasporaemigrépensionersexpatspoignantwizenedbeleagueredfluentOriginally, a national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the creation and support of a national state in Palestine. Since establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Zionism has come to include the development of the State of Israel and the protection of the Jewish nation in Israel through support of the Israel Defense Forces.Sergei Goralick, a Russian emigré. His father was a Zionist. Growing up, he was used to the KGB knocking on his door. As a result, his is nervous and skeptical. He is Jewish and speaks little Hebrew. He has a "strong face, a nice face." His girlfriend Sveta left him for a Moroccan cop. He has faded tattoos. His greatest fear is being alone. He has a talking goldfish whom he caught in the sea who grants him three wishes.BackgroundThe majority (76%) of Iraelis are Jews. The Jewish people were expelled from their homeland "the promised land", Israel, in the first century (70 AD) by the Roman Empire. They were scattered all over the world (Jewish Diaspora). The word "diaspora" means "the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland." In the late 1800s, Jews from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Americas began returning to the region; World War II and the Holocaust drastically increased this immigration. Following the war, many European Jews said: "Never again." They decided to emigrate to Palestine, their ancestral homeland where Israel had been located. Israel became an independent nation in 1948, but tensions with its Arab neighbors and its Arab citizens have led to conflict. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many Russian Jews were finally able to move to Israel and make their own mark on the nation's culture.